#+SETUPFILE: ../../../template/level-2.org
#+TITLE: The Copyright Barrier
#+DATE: <2022-12-26 Mon 22:00>
#+AUTHOR: vaeringjar
#+EMAIL: vaeringjar@land
#+DESCRIPTION: A death mage and a hired mercenary are tracking a powerful evil who has locked an alternate world with a spell that out of universe is a commentary on over-lengthy copyright.
#+KEYWORDS: lore criticism implementation ttrpg


* Prologue

This takes place sometime after [[file:the-lightspeed-barrier.org][The Lightspeed Barrier]]. By this time,
Brick has become more than just a hired gun and is more of a partner.


* Part One

I looked at the portal and shut it off. "They've sealed it themselves
from the other side. I mean, someone did anyway."

Brick flipped up the display. "No they didn't do it. Not
locally. Someone, or someones, from here." He pointed at a point on
the spacetime charts. "This universe or one of its close counterparts,
there aren't too many. They've got some kind of a field blocking these
other ones. And they have a ton."

"But that doesn't make any sense! These universes are completely
devoid of any supernatural phenomena and they're at least fifty years
behind ours, technologically. And even we couldn't pull off something
like that!"

Brick tried to explain it to me. I was in rough shape. "Someone else
must have done it. Gone there. Set it up. There's some kind of decay
giving off radiation. I can see it with the scopes..."

"Don't even think about tracking that down! If it's quantum, they'll
know we're on to them and it'll ruin everything! Shut it off, Brick!"

Brick sighed heavily and closed the display. "Fine. You're right, it
could ruin everything, but it doesn't mean... whoever's there won't
know it's us if we cover ourselves like they did and..."

"Great," I didn't want to hear it, "so then they'll just know someone
is on to them. And if they out-tech us by any means, then they'll know
we're just maggots and snails. We have to keep it low tech, nothing
with a decade of the present day on that world. So if we get caught, I
want us to look like some graduate research assistant at a public uni
who things they found aliens."

"What if we can actually get someone to do the work for us? This
universe doesn't have any of those fields. We could literally just ask
around."

Brick had a good idea, but there was an edge case, "Right up until we
accidentally ask the person we're after for help... to help us track
themselves!"

"That's one hell of a coincidence," Brick scoffed. "But then we'd
have them anyway, right?"

"We need to make sure they never find us. Besides, that's only step
one. We still need to find the person on one of these jailed
universes. There's no way to know if the fields are there specifically
for a reason or not. What if our person is that reason!?"

Brick shifted around and looked straight at me. "I get the caution,
but we're running out of time. It feels like it's too paranoid, too
coincidental. The last part."

"We can't afford to screw this up, dammit!"
